Imagine your family's finances if you spent and borrowed like Washington: you'd owe $60 in credit-card loans for every $100 of income. Every month you'd pay back a little but borrow even more. In 10 years, you'd owe $87 for every $100 you made. At some point you'd hand off the debt to your kids. If they worked until 2035, they'd owe more than $180 for every $100 they earned. In 2050, your grandkids would owe more than $320. By 2080 they'd owe seven times their earnings. Of course, lenders would cut them off well before then, and your family would be ruined. But this is the path your government is on right now.

You probably eat a lot of cheese, as a representative of “America’s Dairyland,” as the license plates say. We do. I work it off.

So where, exactly, are you on cheese? I’m hugely in favor of it.

In the interview, Ryan repeats that he has no interest in running for president in 2012. But that shouldn't prevent him from assuming a larger role as the friendly, funny, knowledgeable spokesman for economic conservatism.